Mr C and I are halfway through the madness of moving home. All our worldly goods have been transported from one wooden house to another and now sit in boxes waiting to be assigned their official locations. Meanwhile, our “old” house looks like an alien ship hovered over it and beamed up all its contents, leaving behind an outline of dust where furniture used to be - it looks abandoned and neglected. And herein lies the problem: We are only halfway through the process. Urgh. Now we have to spend time making our previous home look clean, modern, and appealing to a “contemporary buyer.” And that’s work, and the kind of work neither of us want to do right now. We have something shiny and new to play with and we’re being forced to play with an old toy that even when cleaned up won’t look like our new one.
All of this got me thinking about how similar this situation is to when I move onto a new art project and leave an old one behind. I get so excited by a new idea that often I don’t finish the previous project in the way I’d initially planned: I just cast it aside and run towards the sparkling, glittering, new idea like it’s the most precious thing in the world. So the book, zine, exhibition, sale - whatever I’d had planned for the old work - doesn’t happen, and I know that’s a weakness and something that is to the detriment of my art career. Mr C said, “We need to give the old house a good send-off” and I’ve been thinking about tactics I can use to give my projects a good send-off and stop me from rushing headlong into new work. Here’s what I’m thinking:
Understand the VALUE of the work
Obviously, the value of doing the work on our old house is immense; there are big dollars linked to that property and we need to sell it fast to pay for our new home - that’s a huge incentive. But what about my art? Maybe if I were clearer about the value of the work I’d just created - financial or otherwise - I’d give it a better send-off than throwing it in the corner of my studio!
Decide what you can do yourself and what you need help with
This is something that doesn’t come naturally to me or Mr C - we are DIY fanatics - but we’re realizing we can’t paint the entire old house ourselves as we’re utterly exhausted from the move. We simply don’t have the energy. The garden, we can manage. Small painting tasks, they’re fine. The rest of the painting will be farmed out to a crew who will complete the task in a way shorter time than if we did it ourselves. When it comes to my art, I can see how getting help with some of the final tasks - like editing a book - would be really helpful for me.
Let go of perfection
This old chestnut! Mr C and I could go on for months making improvements to our old house, we’re already having new floors laid and a new water heater, but at some point, we have to say, enough! It’s the same with my art. I’m a recovering perfectionist and I’ve learned that sometimes a zine is better than a book simply because I know I can ship a zine on time. Not to mention budgetary constraints, which pour cold water on perfectionism.
Have a deadline
There’s nothing like an immovable deadline to keep yourself on track. Our old house will go on the market in early September, so there’s time to make changes but not enough time to dawdle. I can see how giving myself deadlines to finish projects would be useful in keeping myself motivated and moving along at a clip, rather than at my usual snail’s pace.
Show off!
All the work we’re doing to our old house has the goal of showing it in its best light to the public, with the hope that someone falls in love with it and wants to buy it. It’s the same with my art. Our old house will be staged to perfection and show off its mid-century charm. With my art projects, I have to decide what’s the best way to stage the work; how can I display it so that it shows off its full beauty? This is tricky for artists because we’re usually limited to how galleries want to show work and often we don’t get to exhibit the entire body of work but just a few pieces. I want to be creative about how I approach this challenge and start curating my own exhibitions in alternative spaces - maybe throughout my new, lovely garden.
What do you think? What would you add to my list? How do you make sure you finish one project/series before you move on to the next? If you’re open to sharing, please put your Private View in the comments box below.
Finally, I’m heading to London end of this week. I know, the timing is terrible! There’s so much to do, but I planned this trip before I knew we were moving and I need a break. London life is calling. I’m looking forward to nourishing comfort food, gallery visiting, and catching up with friends and family. If you’re in London, let me know and maybe we could get a cup of tea together.
Here’s to good send-offs and new beginnings!
Until next time.
JC
Resources I’m valuing:
I used to be quite a Seth Godin fan. I loved his book, Linchpin, and this one about shipping work is okay but buy it second-hand, it’s not worth buying full price:
Or if you can’t be bothered to read the book, here’s a great synopsis:
And just because I’ve been watching many interior design videos, here’s one I particularly enjoy for its eclectic English-ness:
Yay for moving and almost being done. Safe travels to England! <3 Hopefully can catch you before you leave, let me know :)
Great topic and comparison! I'm impressed you made time for writing amidst all the chaos and change. It's a big deal! I'm sure London will be a much needed break to regroup and have some non-house work to enjoy. I'm in a similar situation with being mid-way through an older project that has been on hiatus for the summer. It's a research project that I'm still very passionate about. I think the break has been excellent in regrouping and redefining what it is I want to accomplish. I think by September I'll have a good grasp of the direction I'm taking. Might I add one point, REACHING OUT FOR HELP. If you are midway through a project or coming to an end but losing steam, take some time to talk about the project, what you have discovered along the way and get new viewpoints to help propel it out into the world! As far as the house in comparison, maybe that means getting a stager to set things up, look at your space and image how it could look for others. I do find "selling the house" to be a bit of a different type of experience since simply selling our work is not always the goal. But getting it out into the public sphere is a whole thing and definitely needs some looking at!